He saw that the Bible had the name Alexander MacDonald of Inverness, he chose to find the relatives of Mr MacDonald, who was conceived in Inverness in 1825 and acted as a ship ace, wine vendor and food merchant.

In the wake of reaching Highland Council, he was placed in contact with Anne Fraser, a student of history at the Highland Archive Center who made a MacDonald family tree.

Donald Mackechnie, with a 151-year-old Bible which has been returned to the Scots descendants of its original owner after making a 3,500 mile journey from the US. Courtesy: Metro UK

Mr Whitehead at that point utilized web-based social networking to find Mr Mackechnie's little girl Mairi in Glasgow, who notified her Islay-raised father.

Fortunately, the Bible was hand-conveyed, a minister at Mr Marshall's congregation in Ohio who is initially from Glasgow and was seeing relatives in the city a month ago.